SO HERE WE ARE IN 2011. Never has there been a more competitive time to be in the business of marketing. There have never been more ways of spending budgets. There has never been more pressure on budgets. Or, come to that, more theories about what you should and shouldn’t be doing. What is clear is that whilst many are waffling on about this trend and that development, some are simply getting on with doing things that get results. We are some of those people. And this is some of how we do it.

PART 8: BE WARY OF THOSE PROFESSING ABOUT "THE FUTURE OF ADVERTISING"

You could probably power a small republic with the valuable energy that is wasted every week in the industry by people theorising about what may or may not happen next year, in five years, or in ten years time.

Whole conferences pontificate about it.

Whole forests of trees are felled to provide for people writing about it.

But, without wanting to go all Yoda-like, you will never be marketing in the future, you will always be marketing right now.

The things that you are doing right now are the things that are most important to your business.

Focus your energy on doing the most valuable things that you can be doing for your brand right now.

The best ways of reaching your prospects right now.

The best ways of interesting them, exciting and converting them right now.

In ten years time, focus on the most valuable things to be doing then.